Multi-UAV Path Following using Vector-Field Guidance

2026-04-20

AI Summary

This work addresses the problem of collision avoidance and uniform spacing maintenance for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) navigating along a common reference path. A decentralized cooperative control framework is proposed, integrating a vector field guidance law to steer each UAV toward the reference path, a rotation-based repulsive mechanism derived from relative distance and bearing to guarantee collision-free convergence, and a speed regulation law based on inter-vehicle spacing errors to achieve uniform distribution along the path. Theoretical analysis establishes the asymptotic convergence of spacing errors, while numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach effectively ensures safe, collision-free operation while achieving a uniformly spaced formation.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Replanning and Plan Repair
• Intelligent Robots: Motion and Path Planning
• Multiagent Systems: Coordination and Collaboration

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems

Abstract

This paper presents a decentralized, collision-free framework for path following guidance of multiple uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), while maintaining uniform spacing along a reference path. A vector field-based guidance law is employed to drive each UAV toward the reference path. A rotational repulsion mechanism, utilizing relative distance and bearing between UAVs, is proposed to avoid collisions during convergence to the path, and an inter-UAV spacing error-based velocity control law is presented to achieve uniform separation along the path. Analytical guarantees are established for collision avoidance and convergence of the inter-UAV spacing errors to zero, ensuring uniform separation along the path. Numerical simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.

Problem

• Multi-UAV
• Path Following
• Collision Avoidance
• Uniform Spacing
• Decentralized Guidance

Innovation

• vector-field guidance
• multi-UAV coordination
• collision avoidance
• uniform spacing
• decentralized control